Richard Connaughton’s “Rising Sun and Tumbling Bear” is a detailed study of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05, the first war where an Asian power defeated a European power since the Mongol invasion of the 13th century. Rising Sun and Tumbling Bear, by Richard Connaughton ...

I asked a Japanese friend how he would characterize Shiba Ryotaro’s famous historical novel, “Clouds Above the Hill.” I’ve known its immense popularity, but Shiba had started its newspaper serialization after I left Japan in 1968, and the size of the finished work — ...

Mikasa! The name of the mighty Japanese battleship will be as familiar to the world’s naval historians as it is now to viewers of NHK’s Sunday evening drama “Saka no Ue no Kumo” (“Clouds Over the slope”). It was the Mikasa that all but ...